A/N: School. Bleh.

Much of this entry is probably going to be rather boring. Stick with it, though, because the ending is worth it in my opinion.

Will update some other things eventually. Too tired to do anything more than this right now though. Enjoy.

Title: Open Window

Themes: #2 – School; #3 – House; #13 – True love; #23 – Midnight.

At 5:00 AM, Umino Iruka's alarm clock rings, sharp and shrill in the coolness of morning. The chuunin sleepily reaches up a hand and slaps the device, quieting it.

At 5:05 AM, he is finally fully awake and slides out of bed, stretching a bit, maybe wincing a little as he walks across the room to close the open window.

At 5:08 AM, he sits down for a quick breakfast, usually bread and milk, because he really doesn't have time for anything else.

By 5:15 AM, he is dressed and ready for work. He gathers his bag and whatever papers he needs for the day and heads out of his apartment, traversing rooftops, headed for the academy.

At 5:27 AM, he walks into the teachers' lounge to greet the other teachers. They sit down and prepare to begin their daily conference as Iruka pours himself a cup of dark coffee. Sipping it, he leads them through the conference. The purpose of today's meeting is who gets assigned to teach the beginners' kunai class. Suzume draws the short straw.

At exactly 6:00 AM, the meeting ends. Iruka spends some time in the lounge making light conversation with his fellow teachers, finishing his third cup of coffee, going over the day's lecture notes, and comforting Suzume. The worst the little brats can do is take out an eye, after all, and Iruka actually thinks that certain one-eyed people can be sexy. Though he doesn't say that out loud.

At 6:20 AM, he bids farewell to the other teachers and heads to his classroom. He arranges desks, writes notes on the blackboard, gets another cup of coffee, and prepares to start his day.

At 6:45 AM, his first student comes in. It is Udon, whose mother always insists he come early with any questions on his homework so that he can ask Iruka while he isn't busy. Iruka sits down with him and quietly goes over the problems he couldn't answer.

At 6:55 AM, his more punctual students begin pouring in. Iruka smiles at Udon, pats him on the shoulder and says he's improving, and returns to his desk to properly greet his class when they are all assembled.

At 7:00 AM, class begins. Iruka bids the children good morning and goes over the previous night's homework, while ordering Moegi to collect essays.

At 7:18 AM, Konohamaru finally shows up. Iruka immediately gives him detention.

At 7:37 AM, he begins the day's lesson. Today's subject is tactical strategies and an introduction to critical survival skills.

At 10:15 AM, the bell rings and the kids storm out of the room to the playground for break. As soon as the last child is out the door, Iruka jumps up and runs to the bathroom, because downing four cups of coffee in less than two hours is bound to have some nasty side-effects on his bladder.

At 10:19 AM, he is back in his classroom, patiently waiting for his students to return. He begins wondering where Team Seven is at the moment, and what they are doing. Then he catches himself daydreaming about one particular member and immediately shakes his head, blushing slightly as he tries to focus on other things.

At 10:25 AM, his classroom is once again full of little future-nin and Iruka continues his lecture.

At 11:07, 11:09, and 11:13 AM, Konohamaru tries to sneak out during class. He fails every time.

At 12:03 PM, Iruka is in an unusually good mood, so he dismisses his class early for lunch. The children cheer and are gone in less than ten seconds. Iruka smiles and heads to the teachers' lounge to eat his own lunch.

At 12:07 PM, he discovers something in his bento box that isn't supposed to be there: a note. Its contents are very simple: "Got you something sweet." It is lying on top of a box of Pocky, which also isn't supposed to be there. Iruka grins.

At 12:45 PM, his class comes in from lunch, breathless and dirty and happy. Iruka himself is feeling very cheerful, so he postpones the pop quiz he was going to give them and instead takes his class out to have them practice kunai throwing with Suzume's beginner class.

At 1:38 PM, he brings his kids back inside, ignoring the killing intent Suzume is shooting at his back. He continues the morning's lecture.

At 2:57 PM, he once again dismisses his class early, telling them to have a good day. For the next half-hour or so, he works patiently and personally with those students who have questions from the day's lesson.

At 3:48 PM, he finally finishes erasing the board and cleaning up his classroom. He empties the wastebasket, waters the plant in the corner, collects his things, and heads into the teachers' lounge to sign out. He thinks briefly about staying and chatting with some of his colleagues, but then Suzume enters and immediately starts for him, fire blazing in her eyes. He excuses himself as quickly as possible and bamphs away before she can reach him.

At 3:55 PM, he stops by the marketplace to do some grocery shopping. That done, he heads home to relax a bit and get some grading done.

At 6:15 PM, he decides it's about time to get going and heads in the direction of Ichiraku's.

At 6:23 PM, he arrives at the ramen stand and sees that Naruto is already there. The blond boy greets him with his usual hug and they sit and eat for roughly an hour, Iruka listening patiently as Naruto relates everything that happened that day. The boy tells of how beautiful Sakura looked, and how dumb and clumsy Sasuke acted, and how lazy Kakashi-sensei was, just sitting around reading that stupid book of his, and how it was up to him, future Hokage Uzumaki Naruto, to complete their mission and save all their pathetic little asses from the killer insects in the garden they were weeding.

At 7:36 PM, Iruka pays the bill—he's going to have to ration himself for the rest of the week again—and bids farewell to Naruto. He heads home and can only pray that, if he works nonstop for the next few hours, he can get those essays graded to hand back tomorrow.

By 11:23 PM, he has succeeded. Mentally patting himself on the back, he puts the essays away, then heads to his bedroom. He showers, dresses, makes sure his bedroom window is closed but not locked, and goes to bed.

At exactly midnight, he is awakened by the presence of someone else's chakra. At first he is worried, but then he recognizes the pattern and immediately relaxes, turning toward the window. It's open, and sitting quietly on the sill is a silver-haired wraith, watching him as if silently asking permission to come inside. Iruka smiles. The apparition crosses the floor to him and then ceases to be ephemeral, becoming instead solid and all hot kisses and roaming hands that know just where to touch to drive Iruka mad with pleasure. And for the next few hours, Hatake Kakashi and Umino Iruka make love with all the passion of two desperate lovers who haven't met for a lifetime, though it's only been a day.

At 2:36 AM, they lie together amidst the rumpled covers of Iruka's bed, gasping for breath and clinging to each other, neither feeling much like moving in that pleasant numbness that always follows sex. Kakashi presses a tired kiss to Iruka's forehead and whispers, "I love you." Iruka smiles and repeats it back to him, and thinks to himself that, though true love may not really exist, this is about as close as he'll ever get to it.

At 2:43 AM, the chuunin gives a tired sigh, closes his eyes, and falls asleep in the warm protective circle that is his lover's strong arms.

At 3:00 AM, Kakashi slowly gets out of bed, careful not to disturb Iruka. He heads into the bathroom, wets a towel, and cleans both himself and his lover. Then he dresses in the darkness of the bedroom, brushing a soft kiss over Iruka's temple and getting a sleepy nuzzle in response as he pulls up his mask. Then he is at the window, climbing onto the sill and, like the ghost that he is, disappears as quietly as he came.

At 5:00 AM, the alarm clock rings and Iruka sleepily turns it off. He waits a moment, then gets out of bed, winces because he is slightly sore, closes the open window, and starts over.